top 10
Where to Turn Next
If you seek understanding, comfort, or inspiration, slip into someone else’s shoes as Scout did in To Kill a Mockingbird. Here’s a list of 10 recent books that take me deep into the human heart where we bank our love and hope like embers.
When I Was The Greatest by Jason Reynolds
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Devoted by Jennifer Mathieu
A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman
Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern
Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy
Gift Books for Favorite Kids
Long ago, when my nieces and nephews first came on the scene, my husband suggested that we stake out territory as the aunt and uncle who always send books for gifts. It was the perfect decision. We love the kids, and books, and giving. We live far from our families, so it was harder to create bonds with kids we seldom saw, and being book-senders gave us an identity that would have been diffused if we’d sent a toy one year and toe socks the next. … Continue reading
A Sweet Summer Bucket List
Sweet Emotions
1. Swim in a lake. The best one in the Quiet Corner of Connecticut is Mashapaug Lake at Bigelow Hollow, where the water is clean, silky, and deep. Hint: if you swim out to the sandbar and around the point, Bacon Rock is a half-submerged, striped rock to jump from.
2. Grab a handful of candy at Sweet Emotions Candy in Storrs, CT. Hint: If you answer the trivia question correctly, you earn a free candy prize.
3. Step into the year 1790 at… Continue reading
99 Favorite Reads, Picked by Teens
The teens who named their favorite books for this list include athletes, honors students, non-readers, incarcerated girls, a prom queen, loners, computer game players, gay and straight teens, teens from the coasts and in between, teens of many races, artists, and writers. Their choices made the list (alphabetically) regardless if the books were award-winners, banned, popular, controversial, new, or classic. The sole criteria: these books are favorites. 
1. Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak 2. M.T. Anderson, Feed 3. Anonymous, Go Ask Alice 4. Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, The… Continue reading